Desecration: Antichrist takes the Throne
Desecration: Antichrist takes the Throne is the ninth book in the Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and published in 2001. Plot Summary As part of the Tribulation Force is in Jerusalem and in Petra getting ready for Operation Eagle, Nicolae Carpathia makes his "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem riding on an oversized pig amidst of crowd of gatherers throwing palm branches in his path down the Via Dolorosa. Buck Williams and Chaim Rosenzweig prepare for the elderly Jew's confrontation with Carpathia at the Temple Mount when Hattie Durham boldly confronts both Carpathia and Leon Fortunato in public, calling them "liars" and "blasphemers". Leon uses his Satanic power to call down fire upon Hattie, instantly vaporizing her and making the reluctant Chaim realize the seriousness of his call of God. Meanwhile, Rayford Steele and his crew of volunteers are busy preparing a landing space near Petra for aircraft to land on when Operation Eagle takes flight. During that day and the following day, when Nicolae would desecrate the Temple, the people who have taken the "mark of loyalty" and have worshipped Carpathia's image are suffering from a plague of sores that have come upon them -- a sign that the first Bowl Judgment has struck. This plague incapacitates most of the Global Community Peacekeeper forces, who were the first in Jerusalem to take the "mark of loyalty". Loren Hut, a Morale Monitor, attempts to kill Chaim (now calling himself Micah) live on camera as a public example for any who would dare to oppose Carpathia, but the bullets have no effect -- Chaim is supernaturally protected by God and thus is unharmed. Later on, with cameras watching, Carpathia enters the Temple and tears through the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies with a knife, and then slashes the pig that he tried to ride into Jerusalem on at his neck with the same knife. Scooping up some of the pig's blood, he flings it unto the altar, causing the pig handlers to go into hysterics as it splashes them. The Jews watching this event outside are outraged at this shameless defilement and cause a riot outside the Temple that makes Carpathia break the seven-year agreement he had made with Israel. Chaim tells the Jews to flee to the mountains so that they would not be consumed by the wrath of the Antichrist. Soon Operation Eagle gets underway as Israeli and Jewish refugees flee on helicopter and on bus to Petra. Though God allows those inflicted with the plague of sores to be healed so that Carpathia could send his forces after them, He also gives the Operation Eagle workers and refugees supernatural protection, causing the earth to swallow up the land troops in pursuit. Prior to this, though, David Hassid was busy setting up the tech center in Petra when two MIA Global Community soldiers kill him. Rayford Steele takes out the two MIAs with a powerful gun, though he temporarily loses his hearing until Michael the archangel heals him. In Chicago, Chloe Williams discovers that there is another lighted building in the vicinity. She decides to take off in the night and find out what it is, discovering that it is where a group of street people that became believers, calling themselves The Place, were hiding out. In New Babylon, a "mole hunt" is underway, and Chang Wong tries to protect himself, though it results in the deaths of two innocent people serving Carpathia. In Greece, Lukas Miklos tries to help two teenagers who have escaped from a holding facility for Global Community criminals and dissidents flee to safety with the Tribulation Force members in Chicago. George Sebastian, who helped out with Operation Eagle, was assigned to bring these teenagers to safety. However, as Lukas and another believer try to deliver the teenagers to the airport where George will pick them up, one of the teens turn out to be a Global Community agent. She kills all three believers and then captures George and holds him hostage along with a few other agents. As the seas are now afflicted with the second Bowl Judgment, Tsion Ben-Judah travels to Petra with Rayford to become their spiritual leader, and Mac McCullum travels to Greece with Chloe and Hannah Palemoon to try rescuing George. Meanwhile, Carpathia has a few planes with deadly missiles and a "daisy cutter" drop their payload right on top of the people in Petra, watching with glee as the payload unleashes a powerful firestorm. Characters In Desecration * Rayford Steele, former pilot for Pan-Continental * Buck Williams, former news reporter for Global Weekly * Chloe Williams, the wife of Buck Williams and head of the Co-op * Kenny Bruce Williams, son of Buck and Chloe Williams * Hattie Durham, former flight attendant and personal assistant to Nicolae Carpathia * Chaim Rosenzweig, former Israeli scientist, posing as Micah * Tsion Ben-Judah, rabbinical scholar and cyber-pastor * Mac McCullum, former pilot to Nicolae Carpathia * Abdullah Smith, former pilot to Nicolae Carpathia * Albie, former black market dealer * George Sebastian, former military commander and volunteer for Operation Eagle * David Hassid, former Director of Purchasing in New Babylon * Chang Wong, computer genius working undercover in New Babylon * Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr., master of disguises and fake IDs * Leah Rose, former hospital nurse * Hannah Palemoon, former hospital nurse at New Babylon * Ming Toy, former Global Community employee * Enoch Dumas, pastor of The Place * Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist * Leon Fortunato, the False Prophet, the High Reverend Father of Carpathianism * Walter Moon, Supreme Commander * Viv Ivins, spiritual mentor to Nicolae Carpathia * Suhail Akbar, Security and Intelligence Chief * Sam Goldberg (voice only), a young Jewish believer who becomes enraged when Carpathis desecrates the temple * Marcel Papadopoulos, one of two teenage believers killed in Greece after escaping a facility Fulfilled Events * The "abomination of desolation" (Daniel 9:27) * The "woman clothed with the sun" fleeing into the wilderness (Revelation chapter 12) * The first and second Bowl Judgments Notes * Chang's "truthful responses" in his polygraph interrogation in regards to his "loyalty" to the Potentate Nicolae Carpathia when he was really thinking about Jesus Christ as the Potentate is similar to an event in the apocryphal book of Judith, where the title character, when confronted by Holofernes and asked to give a "trustworthy report" about the Judean forces that were encamped on the mountain in Bethulia, responds by saying "I will say nothing false to my lord." While Holofernes thought that Judith meant she would be loyal to him, Judith actually meant that she would say nothing false to "her lord" meaning God. Trivia * This is the ninth book in the series. * Young Tribulation Force member Sam Goldberg is heard yelling at Nicolae Carpathia, "You'll not leave here alive, pretender!" on page 168 of this book. * The names of the boy and girl that Cameron and Albie rescued from the prison is Greece are revealed: Marcel Papadopoulos and Georgiana Stavros. Deaths * Hattie Durham * Daniel Yossef * Unnamed male heckler * Loren Hut * David Hassid * Marcel Papadopoulos * Walter Moon * Kronos Pappas * Lukas Miklos Category:Books